Teething Biscuits (Recipe in Progress)

Currently Smiley is on a break from teething. His first two lower teeth have come in, and he is waiting for his first two upper teeth to begin their advance.

But he still loves to chew on things and has been introduced to more grains, so Wednesday seemed a good day to experiment with baking teething biscuits.

I started with a recipe from this website. Quinoa and teff flours are much more nutritious than wheat flour, and their nuttier flavor will not be a drawback for a dry biscuit. Since we do not have flavored infant rice cereal I added real fruit. The resulting ingredients are:

• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 1/2 cup teff flour
• 1 cup dry infant rice cereal
• 1 tsp applesauce, banana, etc.
• 1 tsp olive oil
• water

The measured ingredients are mixed in a bowl with the water slowly added until the dough just starts to form a ball. Then knead and shape on the baking sheet.

Without any leavening, these turn into something my wife nicknamed "chew bricks". That is the idea: a biscuit so hard and dry that the baby dissolves a little bit at a time as it chews instead of biting off a large enough piece to be a choking hazard.

I cooked the biscuits on a baking sheet with a Silpat, first at 425 degrees for 15 minutes and the, after they cooled, a second time at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. This still did not get them dry enough. Perhaps I should reduce the initial heat to 350 degrees and cook them for more than half an hour.

Also, while trying to make the biscuits thick enough to be sturdy yet thin enough to not create choking hazards when chewed apart, I made the first batch too thin. Smiley could bite off pieces too easily.

(Finally, I should note that I used millet instead of quinoa, only because Smiley has not been introduced to quinoa yet.)

I'll post a finished recipe when I have one. Any suggestions are welcome!